Suicide Survivor Kevin Hines inspires students

Kevin Hines, a speaker, published author and filmmaker, inspired his audience with his firsthand experience of substance abuse and mental illness, Tuesday at Memorial Hall.
Hines was born to two people who suffered from manic depression. To cope, his parents turned to drugs and alcohol while neglecting him and his brother, who were both infants. After bouncing from home to home in the foster care system and losing his brother to a strain of bronchitis, Hines was finally adopted by Patrick and Debbie Hines.
Although Debbie initially went into the transitional home where Hines was staying in search of a little girl, the Hines family took Kevin in at the age of nine months. There, Hines lived with an adopted brother and an adopted sister.
Though Hines thought he was “lucky to have it all” as part of the Hines family, mental illness eventually caught up with him from past trauma and genetics.
In high school, Hines saw his first symptom of his bipolar disorder: paranoia. He began to hear voices in his head. Eventually, the voices in his head convinced him to kill himself.
“Suicide is not meant for anyone, even though depression deceits us into it being so,” Hines said.
On Sept. 24, 2000, Hines wrote a goodbye note to his loved ones. The next day, his father dropped him off at his community college where Hines dropped nine of his 12 credits.
Hines took a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. On the ride there, he was obviously upset, yet no one said a word to him.
“If we are nothing else on this green planet, we are one thing: our brother’s and sister’s keepers,” Hines said. He told the audience to reach out to those they love or even strangers on the street. If one person had asked Hines how he was, he vowed he wouldn’t jump. Yet no one did.
Hines catapulted himself of the Golden Gate Bridge and fell 220 feet, or 25 stories, at 75 miles per hour for four seconds. The moment his hands left the railing, he felt instant regret.
Miraculously, Hines survived his fall. He shattered part of his leg and was two millimeters away from severing his spine. A sea lion came to his aid and kept him afloat while the Coast Guard came.
One of the members of the Coast Guard reminded Hines of his luck by saying, “We have pulled 57 dead bodies out of these waters, and only one live one.”
With a new will to live, Hines recovered from his fall. He struggled with his mental illness and has gone through seven stays in the psych ward since his attempted suicide.
While in the psych ward, he met his future wife.
After finishing telling his love story, he said, “Just because you’re in pain today, doesn’t mean you aren’t gonna have a beautiful tomorrow.”
Hines left his audience with the inspiring thought, “Your pain matters because you do.” He encouraged people to address their pain instead of burying it.
The speaker continues to tell his story and inspire others, especially with his documentary, “The Ripple Effect,” and on tour to various schools.